


Casualties

by sylviaviridian



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 18:32:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3391892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviaviridian/pseuds/sylviaviridian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-game. Peony wants Jade and Dist to work together. Dist says he's changed. Jade tells Dist exactly why he hasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casualties

“No.” Jade's firm, emphatic denial cut through the tone of increasing agreement like a bucket of water dumped on a campfire. “I won't work with him.”

“Come on, Jade,” Peony pouted at him. “He's not going to go back to the same old stuff. Anyone can see he's ready to move on forward now.”

“Yes, I promise!” Dist agreed, nodding a little too eagerly. “...As painful as it is, I understand now – there's no way to truly bring back the Professor. We just have to keep moving forward, and-”

“That's _not_ why.” The sudden flash of controlled anger in Jade's voice made Peony's eyes widen very slightly, and Jade could see him instantly reassessing the dynamics of the situation.

“All right.” That was Peony's soothing tone. _Let's all be reasonable people here_ , it said, and Jade couldn't decide if he was grateful for the calming influence that let him keep hold of his reasoning, or irritated by the implication that he was being unreasonable. He was not being unreasonable...not yet, but he easily could be, and keeping a tight leash on his anger was the only answer. Peony knew that, too; he was giving Jade the tools he needed to keep steady. “Jade, can you explain your reasons for us, then? It looks like we haven't caught up yet.”

“Yes, please do,” Dist sniffed haughtily, and the spike of fierce anger drove itself through Jade's chest again. “I've already told you I've changed – what more do you want from me?”

_Words aren't change. I know that now. I know what change looks like because of him._ Jade shook his head. “You say you have...but I've yet to see any evidence of the change that would really matter. You don't understand at all what you've done, do you?”

Dist quivered with righteous indignation. “I understand that I wasted a huge portion of my life, and hurt countless people, in pursuit of a useless goal.” It was to his credit, Jade supposed, that he was actually retaining his composure for the most part. That, at least, showed that he wasn't making this _entirely_ about himself.

But it wasn't enough. “And the replicas?” Jade pressed. “What are your feelings toward them?”

Dist seemed a little uncertain now. “W-well...of course, I'm willing to take responsibility for their well-being. We...we can't just have them wandering around helpless, after all.”

“I think I see,” Peony interjected, and from the way his lips had pressed into a thin line, Jade knew he was right. He met his friend's gaze, and Peony nodded at him. “...Go on, lay it out for him.”

Jade nodded sharply, and rounded on Dist, the hard edge of anger clearer than ever in his voice. “What you're failing to recognize, Dist, is that those replicas 'wandering around helpless' are human beings who deserve your regrets and your apologies a thousand times more than any of the rest of us. The reason why what we did back then was so terrible – you never really understood it, did you?” The memories stung, now more than ever, but he had to bring them into the open, had to make it clear enough that even Dist would understand. “We created replica after replica, imperfect copies of the Professor...but although they weren't the Professor, every single one of them was a living being, and we killed them with less thought than you would accord an animal bred for the slaughter.” Jade shook his head. “...Even I didn't fully recognize the truth of that until much later. Until I met Luke...” He turned away, and closed his eyes for a moment, warding off a wave of grief and clinging to his anger. He needed that anger, he wasn't done with it yet. When he opened his eyes again, he paced back and forth in the small room rather than addressing his words directly toward Dist. “...When I first discovered what Luke was, I still had hope. You'd created a perfect isofon, a task we'd thought all but impossible. But after all, you'd had many years to develop the technology. While I doubted you'd been successful on the first attempt, it was possible his existence didn't represent another such atrocity as we'd committed in our youth.

“But then we learned the full truth about Ion. Ion, who was created five years later, with the fontech still more advanced, and still it took you seven tries to even create a replica that would be usable as a decoy...let alone an isofon.” Now, finally, he turned again to face Dist, staring his former friend directly in the eyes, boiling with a rage so fierce that shouting would add nothing to the intensity. “So tell me, Dist: how many tries did it take you to create Luke? How many replica children never left your laboratories? ...How many times did you _kill Luke_ without even looking him in the eye?!”

Dist, he noticed suddenly, was trembling. He looked as if he'd been stabbed, his gaze sightless and distant, and as Jade watched, his eyes filled with tears until they spilled down his cheeks. Dist's knees wavered and gave out, and Jade turned away again, unwilling to continue witnessing the aftermath of his words.

He took a few strides toward the stairwell up, then paused. “I can't be here right now,” he told Peony, his voice low and soft with the reluctant admission.

“Yeah,” Peony acknowledged. “...Go. I'll be there in a minute.”

After Jade was gone, Peony knelt by the bars of the cell, where Dist was now sobbing quietly into his hands. “Hey,” he murmured softly. “...Look, I have to go be with Jade right now, and you need some time to think about this. I just want to tell you before I go: even now, it isn't too late. You're still alive – you can still make something of that.” There was no response or acknowledgment from Dist, no break in the sobbing, but Peony trusted that his words would make it through when they needed to. He rose, looked at the broken Dist for a moment longer, then turned to follow Jade up the stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> Asch was kept in Choral Castle for weeks or maybe months, being repeatedly subjected to experiments, and although he wasn't sure what exactly they were for, we know that in those experiments, they were trying to create a replica of him perfect enough to send home in his place.
> 
> The number of Ion replicas, and the time to create them, was limited by the original Ion's poor health, but Luke fon Fabre, when kidnapped, was a perfectly healthy ten-year-old child.
> 
> There's only one replica Luke.
> 
> :(


End file.
